Topic: [Announce] Smeserver-geneweb

[mab974]

Hi,

i have updated the work of Craig Jensen (and others) to geneweb-6.07 and i need some tests. I do not know if there are still users of geneweb on sme. 

Packets are available for SME8 and SME9 (geneweb v6.07 and smeserver-geneweb 2.0-19) at http://repos.misouk.com

Misouk repository can be installed.

Code: [Select]

db yum_repositories set misouk repository \
BaseURL http://repos.misouk.com/Sme_Server/\$releasever \
EnableGroups no GPGCheck yes \
Name "SME Repo @ misouk.com" \
GPGKey http://repos.misouk.com/RPM-GPG-KEY \
Visible yes status disabled

Doc in wiki remains valid. (http://wiki.contribs.org/Geneweb)

Feedbacks appreciated.

[stephdl]

I'm glad to see a new contributor.....we lack a lot of news like that.....please test this work

[EriK]

Hello,

For a long time I was waiting for a contrib my favorite genealogy software in SME and so I am very interested to participate in the test.
I installed the 4.09 version of Geneweb on a Free-EOS Server (a French version E-Smith Server), there several years, but I do not have the skills to adapt the latest version of Geneweb in SME Server.
I have a machine running SME Server V8.1 now.
So I installed the contrib, and it works!!!

Thank you.

I have 2 minor complaints:
1. Geneweb services do not start automatically.
2. The application does not install a ibay. Do-it should not?
Are you planning to improve this?

Otherwise it's all good. 

[mab974]

hello,

1. Geneweb services do not start automatically.

it's embarrassing, this version is supposed to solve this problem. 

2. The application does not install a ibay. Do-it should not?

I really don't know, initially I wanted to do a minimal patch so geneweb remained in the /opt directory but this can be discussed.

I take a look ... as soon as possible.

[stephdl]

My 2c and of course you are invited to argue

Since gebeweb is a contrib, the location must be either in /opt (seems a sme standard) or in /usr/share if you want to be redhat compatible.

Both are valuable except that stick to redhat standard should be what we aim

[janet]

stephdl

Since geneweb is a contrib, the location must be either in /opt (seems a sme standard)....

charlieb suggested to use /opt many years ago & others picked up on that & it became a pseudo standard for SME server,  but it seems charlie may have regretted that suggestion.
SME server is designed to have contribs installed in ibays & IMO all contribs should be installed in an ibay.
 There are problems & extra work required with putting contribs in /opt eg aliases, & there are sufficient ibay controls & protective mechanisms to make ibay usage "as safe as possible".

Personally I move any contrib that installs itself into /opt, into an ibay, it's better for various reasons.

Opinions may vary but it does not really matter where a contrib installs itself to, but there is certainly no compelling technical reason to continue installing contribs (particularly web apps) to /opt on SME server.

We should aim to stick with SME server standards & install contribs to ibays.

[mab974]

EriK

1. Geneweb services do not start automatically.

when the local IP address is changed via the admin-console, the gwd restart does not happen despite the execution of the event. The equivalent manual modification with "config setprop geneweb only XXXX" and "signal-event geneweb-modify" is working properly. This needs some investigation.
Otherwise the service seems to work.

Janet
However geneweb is a somewhat special application that does not use php, perl, apache (for now) and mysql. So it may be separated from the standard applications.

[stephdl]

Personally I move any contrib that installs itself into /opt, into an ibay, it's better for various reasons.

Opinions may vary but it does not really matter where a contrib installs itself to, but there is certainly no compelling technical reason to continue installing contribs (particularly web apps) to /opt on SME server.

We should aim to stick with SME server standards & install contribs to ibays.

You are a power user, so you can do what you want

I disagree with the idea to move files of a rpm to  ibays, I do not know what it can happen if you do a backup and a restoration to another server, you might have some issues, but you have the skill to solve them, so no problem for me.

A contrib is done to users who don't have the skill to trade with a webapp application, if you have the level of knowledge of doing a mysql db and installing all php files (yes it is easy)  I would agree that the good place is the ibay because the server can trade with all the backup process. However backup are in the hand of sysadmin, and when you install a wordpress or any other webapp from epel, they don't provide backup for you, it is your job.

In french we have an expression 'ceinture et bretelles' (belt and braces) so you should have two ways of different backup it is most sure.

From my experience, I would follow the fedora behaviour and install all files in /usr/share.

[EriK]

stephdl

SME server is designed to have contribs installed in ibays & IMO all contribs should be installed in an ibay.

We should aim to stick with SME server standards & install contribs to ibays.

That's what I understood when I first use Free-EOS Server.
Thank you for consolidated my understanding of this specificity on SME Server

[Stefano]

it doesn't matter where we install things as long:
- it is well documented
- it is into a standard backup

so, IMHO (@stephdl) if a contrib is installed in /usr/share or $whenever, it should add his destination dir to the list of backupped ones

[stephdl]

that could/should be done by the end user,  I don't want to be responsible for the backup of others, mine are enough

[Stefano]

well.. I disagree..
in any case, I'll post a mail in devinfo ML with an idea

[stephdl]

You are welcome

[EriK]

it doesn't matter where we install things as long:
- it is well documented
- it is into a standard backup

so, IMHO (@stephdl) if a contrib is installed in /usr/share or $whenever, it should add his destination dir to the list of backupped ones

IMHO, this application (Geneweb) deserves to be installed in an i-bay.
Indeed, the administrator of the Family database is not necessarily the server administrator.
However, the administration of the database sometimes requires to write directly in the application folder (import-export Gedom file, adding pages linked to the database, etc ...)
The installation of the application in an i-bay allows all this via FTP access.
For my part, I manually installed the application in "/home/e-smith/files/ibays/geneweb/files".

The downside is that my system is no longer compatible with the contrib Craig Jensen ( integration of Geneweb into the server manager).

[mab974]

@erik
there are multiple solutions as usual but IMHO the best way is to change the contrib so that it meets the needs (adding and updating data by authorized users). The data directory of geneweb can be anywhere (separate from the application) and the rights can be refined for FTP (with geneweb existing group for example).

the location of the base application also depends a lot on the source, many recent contribs use the EPEL repository, this can be a very wise choice in light of frequent security updates  more easily achieved by better adapted structures. In this case, the appli will be in /usr/share/XXX, the data in /var/lib/XXX and the configuration files in /etc/XXX.

if a contrib is installed in /usr/share or $whenever, it should add his destination dir to the list of backupped ones

i agree. each contrib should be able to add (and remove if uninstall) the data directory in a standard backup list used by backup programs.
At a recent upgrade to sme9 I lost data stored in /var/lib. fortunately it was a test appli.